International migration spurs highest U.S. population growth since 2001

New York’s Staten Island — The United States experienced its largest annual population growth in more than 20 years due to an influx of over 2.8 million foreign migrants.

The country’s population increased by almost 1% between 2023 and 2024, from 336,806,231 to 340,110,988, the fastest yearly growth rate since 2001, according to updated population projections just provided by the U.S. Census Bureau.

Rising net international migration is the main cause of the notable increase; 2.8 million migrants make up almost 84% of the nation’s 3.3 million population growth.

In order to better capture the growing net international migration, which has risen steadily from 1.7 million in 2022 to 2.3 million in 2023 and now to 2.8 million in 2024, the U.S. Census Bureau recently modified its methodology.

Our estimates technique has been improved by better integration of federal immigration data sources, according to Christine Hartley, assistant division chief for Estimates and Projections. This update helps us better grasp how the country’s general population growth is being affected by the recent surge in foreign migration.

The U.S. Census Bureau estimates that between 2023 and 2024, the number of births in the United States will surpass the number of deaths by around 519,000, which is significantly less than what the nation has seen in previous decades. This is responsible for the remaining population growth.

According to Kristie Wilder, a demographer in the Census Bureau’s Population Division, an annual growth rate of 1.0% is well within historical norms but greater than what we’ve seen in recent years. During the past five years, net international migration has emerged as the main force behind the country’s growth, making the declining contribution of natural increase noteworthy.

Nine states experienced increases of 100,000 or more new inhabitants between 2023 and 2024, and 47 out of 50 states saw population growth.

Following Florida (467,347), California (232,570), North Carolina (164,835), additional York (129,881), New Jersey (121,209), Georgia (116,446), Arizona (109,357), Washington (100,860), and South Carolina (91,001), Texas experienced the highest population gain of any state, with 562,941 additional citizens.

With 39,431,263 inhabitants, California continues to be the most populous state in the nation. Texas (31,290,831), Florida (23,372,215), New York (19,867,248), and Pennsylvania (13,078,751) are next in line.

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